Leaving Cert French: ‘Motivation’ letter baffles students

Thousands of Leaving Cert French students took to the internet on Wednesday to complain about a question on their paper asking them to write a “letter of motivation”.

Large numbers of students used social network Snapchat to say they had no idea what the question meant, and techers said the section, requiring candidates to write a formal cover letter for a job, had caused confusion.

There was further consternation when students were asked to quote une phrase, which many will have taken to mean a phrase; in fact, they were being asked to quote a sentence. Students may have lost up to 10 marks here.

"They are under enough pressure in the exams without trying to figure out what they are being asked to do," said Natasha Lynch, of EssentialFrench.ie. "I'm not sure what the examiners were thinking here."

The paper was very challenging in parts, teachers said, although there were some lovely questions.

Ms Lynch said the comprehension questions were generally straightforward, although some students may have misunderstood une phrase, and the structure of that question, which was about a dating website, may have thrown others.

Vague

A question where students were told to write a story about an interesting email they received was somewhat vague: some will have struggled to create their own story, but imaginative students will have fared well.

In typical format, there were questions on education, young people and a social problem. These were nice questions, but there is no way that students could have regurgitated chunks of rote-learned information here, said Ms Lynch.

Elizabeth Hayes-Lynne, of FrenchNotes.ie and the author of school textbook Bonne Chance, said the higher level paper had accessible comprehension questions which tested the candidate's knowledge of all the grammatical tenses. Most of the other questions were doable, she said, nothing that a question on obesity was particularly relevant.

Ms Hayes-Lynne said she thinks the entire syllabus should be reformed to include more emphasis on oral skills.

The ordinary level paper was seen as very accessible, with students given a choice of message or postcard which required them to use the past, present and future tenses, said Ms Hayes-Lynne. But Ms Lynch said one question, requiring students to rewrite parts of a text, would have been a challenge even for the higher level students.

Students said the aural exam threw up no major surprises, with a question on the environment going down particularly well.

TRY THIS AT HOME LEAVING CERT FRENCH HIGHER LEVEL

Vous avez passé vos vacances en famille dans un camping. Quel désastre ! Tout était affreux : les installations, la nourriture …. tout. Même le temps était mauvais!

De retour chez vous, qu’est-ce que vous notez à ce sujet dans votre journal intime?